You know what’s not funny? Things going right. That’s why I —Sofia Warren, your editor du jour, hello—am fully committed to my life as a Hot Mess. You think I want to show up late and drunk to my sister’s wedding? You think I want to hot wire a car and drive it into the parlor of a perfectly nice brownstone? You think it was my desire to accidentally-on-purpose tell all my oldest friends in great detail what their deficiencies are, and why they’ll never be truly loved?
No. I do it all for you. For COMEDY.
This week’s newsletter is about things out of context: the right thing in the wrong place, or the wrong thing in the right place, or the wrong thing at the right time. . . you get it. It’s called The Wrong Trousers after the Wallace and Gromit movie of the same name, in which a criminal penguin evades detection by putting a rubber glove on his head and passing as a chicken. Nobody does comedy, and context, better than Wallace and Gromit.
Ellis Rosen
Goodbye there! Wait sorry - I meant: So long, how are you doing? No. That's not right either. How about: Farewell, long time no see! no. Adieu? Auf wiedersehen? Goodbye? No, I said that one already. Ugh, I’m terrible at this. Forget it. Hello.
Neil Dvorak
There’s a difference between asking for help and asking for someone to get in the proverbial ditch with you. Maybe we sometimes forget we can help without getting in the ditch. Sometimes we don’t know we’re in a ditch until someone is in there with us. Sometimes we think a friend is in a ditch when they’re not, and sometimes you’re in a ditch for years and you don’t even know it, sometimes you are the ditch itself. Often an empty ditch will need to be filled with dirt, concrete or rebar, in which case, thank you construction industry!
Hilary Campbell
God dammit if I don’t think nuns are FUNNY. In fact, my boyfriend and I currently have a calendar next to our fridge called “Funny Nuns.” FURTHERMORE. One of the women who raised me is an ex-nun and remains to be one of the silliest, most ridiculous, loud-mouthed, hilarious women I’ll ever know. But did you think that could be? No. You didn’t. You fools out there think nuns are boring. They’re mean. They got no personality. They’d never wear a ghostface mask to get a laugh! …. Wait is this the plot of Sister Act?
Navied Mahdavian
Aristotle was the first person to pick up a snail, look inside, and ask what’s there. Like us, he probably found their squishiness gross, but he realized that there was something beautiful there too. And that takes courage.
Unlike Aristotle, my mum just keeps telling me to stop touching them.
E.S. Glenn
Writing the right thing might’ve had these castaways stranded for life!
Sofia Warren
The wrong place is anywhere I am not. Tragically, I can’t be everywhere at once, which means most of the things that have ever happened in the history of humanity have happened when I wasn’t around. And that sucks! This is a cartoon about that time I went to Denmark for a semester, and two of my friends—who didn’t know each other before I left—became close friends in my absence. Jerks.
Thanks for reading! I’m off to pick a fight with someone smaller than me.
-S
For Your Pleasure: Cartoon Extras
Follow Kendra Allenby as she walks the Continental Divide Trail for 5 months!
Amy Kurzweil’s has a Patreon. Join her Creative Community and bring your mom!
Enjoy diary comics from Hilary Campbell on Patreon!
Be sure to check out Shelby Lorman’s newsletter, Please Clap!
The same goes for Sofia Warren’s advice newsletter, You’re Doing Great!
See more cartoons from Ellis Rosen’s weekly Junk Drawer!
Re: Neil Dvorak
There is a wonderful story that goes with your cartoon. Man falls in the ditch. Doctor walks by, doesn’t help, throws prescription in the ditch. Priest walks by, doesn’t help, throws prayer in the ditch. Friend walks by jumps in and says “I’ve been here before and I know the way out.”